History

The exploration on endosulfan – a deadly pesticide – led us to the world of toxic chemicals and we came to know about Persistent Organic Pollutants which pose threat to life. India had signed the Stockholm convention to phase out 12 listed POP chemicals (Dirty Dozen) in 2002, but had not ratified it till 2005 because of some reservations from the industries. Thanal have joined the national campaign to get Stockholm convention ratified.

One of the major sources of Dioxins – one of the most toxic substance and a POP chemical – are waste incinerators. For this reason Waste incineration, an end of pipe technology had to face severe resistance from the public in the U.S and Europe. This made the technology vendors to invade Asian markets. Along with the POP campaign, Thanal also got into campaign in 1999 against waste incineration in the background of incineration technology vendors pushing their business in Kerala.

Joining the local groups in Kovalam to resist a plan to install a waste incineration in Kovalam tourist village Thanal succeeded in convincing the authorities to shelve the project in 2000. But the issue of waste remained same and Thanal volunteered to do a study to help the authorities to solve the problem of waste. It paved way for Zero Waste Kovalam campaign in 2001.

A decades experience Thanal accumulated through campaigns, research, community interventions, system development and management, knowledge sharing through international networks placed Thanal as pioneers in Zero Waste.

Zero Waste is one of the major programmes of Thanal to impart the experience on zero waste and to promote zero waste ideals. Under this programme we do;

• Campaign and lobbying

Thanal is active in promoting Zero Waste as a solution to current issues of waste. As part of the campaign, we organize training and leadership programmes for students, volunteers, teachers, officials, elected representatives and public.

• Technical support and consultancy

We provide technical support and consultancy for private and government institutions, local self governments, Government and non governmental agencies in setting up training, planning, and setting up of discard handling systems etc. We also provide resource persons and faculties for Government and Non Government training institutions.

• Research

We do action researches, case studies and fact finding on matters concerned to waste and zero waste of our own and support other organizations.

• Networking

To promote Zero Waste and to build capacity in community to establish zero waste systems, we do networking with individuals, experts and organizations for exchanging experiences and information.

What is Zero Waste?

In the modern world a material generally becomes a waste after use. But, this is not a natural phenomenon that can be accepted or sighed away with. It is an unnecessary and unnatural happening. The solution to waste lies in understanding this movement and the question - why does a material become a waste? It does so, because of various factors - wrong material use, bad and inefficient designs, and thoughtless, unethical practices all of which then infiltrates the culture. The solution to the growing menace of waste begins with the principles of Zero Waste - one of the most profound ways that modern societal change is being envisaged in the world today. These principles are based on ethics, economy and efficiency and that is how the problems of waste and its solutions are to be seen in the context of modernisation, and rapid urbanisation as well. Zero Waste is a total systems approach that goes beyond just segregate-reuse-reduce-recycling. Many communities all over the world, most of them victims of some form of conventional waste disposal plants like landfills or incinerators, started thinking in the lines of going out of the very paradigm of disposal, to something that is beyond even resource recovery, which itself is considered very progressive.
Zero waste is a simple goal with far reaching implications. It questions the view of nature as an endless source of materials and an endless dumping ground for waste.

Zero Waste is hence a logical planning approach incorporating principles of effective human and material resource utilization to avoid the conversion of discards into waste an inefficient form in a manner that revitalizes the local economy.